George Hatza: Are people on reality TV actually stars?

None of us can help it, but we can't resist watching a train wreck. And that is what makes reality television so popular.

The term "reality star" is, for me, an oxymoron. A star is someone bigger than life, someone famous for having genuine talent. People like Meryl Streep and Hugh Jackman and Jennifer Lawrence.

Those are stars, particularly in the context of their work. Yes, they live well. They never worry about money. They toil at maintaining normalcy. But as soon as they walk out their front doors, they are stars. Big smiles and demure nods, or perhaps baseball caps, sunglasses, heads down.

Honey Boo Boo Thompson of the TLC series "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" is not a star. Her greedy family gorges itself on junk food, dreaming of roses and tiaras. The clan is a train wreck, which is why it's a smash.

Which brings me to our own Kate Gosselin of South Heidelberg Township, who for several years was a TLC celebrity with her then-husband, Jon, and their eight children, six of whom are sextuplets and two of whom are twins. Was there ever anything pleasant about Kate Gosselin? She rarely smiles.

Her TV show, "Jon & Kate Plus 8," lasted as long as her husband and she could stand one another, then it became just "Kate Plus 8," until TLC decided her fan base was diminishing. But "Dancing With the Stars" disagreed. To the producers of that ABC reality-competition series, Kate Gosselin was a star.

Except she couldn't dance. That's when I began to soften toward her. I felt bad that the gap between stardom and Kate Gosselin suddenly appeared even wider than it had before. Watching her cha-cha was like, well, watching a train wreck. Audiences sensed the pathos and voted her off.

As for the E! series "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," there's little to say: no talent, no intelligence (except for matriarch Kris Jenning, who has business savvy). These are spoiled rich people living empty lives many Americans covet.

Or maybe it's just that the show is like watching a really great train wreck.